Retro-fitting Eco-Friendly Home!

Retro-fitting Eco-Friendly Home!The government has set a target for all new houses to be zero-carbon by 2016. But what of the existing housing stock? More than 21m homes - 86 per cent of the current total - will still be in use in 2050 and industry experts acknowledge big efforts will be needed to improve the energy performance of these houses.And this is why E.ON, one of Britain's biggest energy companies, is teaming up with the University of Nottingham to build a replica 1930s house.. The three-bedroomed semi-detached house on the university's Green Close will function as a guinea pig for research technologies aimed at reducing the energy consumption associated with existing homes.The house will use up to date green technology to generate and conserve energy within the house and will have an extension designed to make the maximum use of solar panels.The move highlights the fact that if the UK is serious about reducing carbon emissions we'll need to retro-fit low-carbon measures to existing homes. Retro-fitting is more costly and complicated than building new eco-friendly houses from scratch.